What? All weapons skills remain unchanged since the char creation - is that supposed to be like that?

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You forgot to select spear as your weapon when you created your character, you must have sword as your weapon.

Actually that happens a lot, perhaps there needs to be a warning message if you leave the weapon selection defaulted to sword?

Shoot, that's true.

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Did you read Vince's survival guide sticky?

No, I did not - I haven't visited the forums for a couple weeks and anyway, I refuse to read any manuals and combat tactics walkthroughs on principle. But why would a player even need to read any of that? Suppose I am not a forum member. The interface should be intuitive and self-explanatory without any readme. I want to have all descriptions in-game. As is, a regular gamer who just stumbled upon this demo might have a hard time figuring out elementary commands and just quit out of frustration. Which I did.

What? All weapons skills remain unchanged since the char creation - is that supposed to be like that?

Nope. But I've never seen or heard that happening anyway. Can you record a little video to illustrate your problem?

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"Oh, 'twould be marvelous if the world and its moral questions were like some game board, with plain black players and white, and fixed rules, and nary a shade of grey."The Black Company. Shadows Linger.

For the ease of use of forum members, I propose that ITS implements an "I agree with Galsiah" emoticon.

That suggestion out of the way, I do agree with him on the issue at hand. Like everyone else, I have nothing further to add to strengthen his point.

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I refuse to read any manuals and combat tactics walkthroughs on principle.

This is absurd. What principle leads one to take this approach? I'd just roll my eyes and move on, but the truth is I've seen this advanced as an "argument" that a game's mechanics or interface are subpar in the past. Ellorien is not alone here.

Yes, a user interface should be as intuitive as possible, and there's no good reason not to fit it out with helpful tooltips. Yes, a game should have a robust in-game help system of some kind. And yes, a solid printed manual should absolutely be par for the course. But no, a game should not be so self evident about every aspect of its design and gameplay that one should be considered reasonable for ignoring the instructions while complaining of its opaqueness.

Are you spending points only on chosen weapon skill or youre spending them on several ones?You should select one weapon as primary and put all points into that weapon and either Dodge, CS, or Block.

Meaning, one weapon skill and one ability out of those three.Dividing skill points over two skills will get you your ass handed back back to you in some interesting and sometimes humiliating ways. At first.

And maybe that "glitch" is due to something like that? Or wearing armor which negatively affects some skills. Happened to me.

Yes, a user interface should be as intuitive as possible, and there's no good reason not to fit it out with helpful tooltips. Yes, a game should have a robust in-game help system of some kind. And yes, a solid printed manual should absolutely be par for the course. But no, a game should not be so self evident about every aspect of its design and gameplay that one should be considered reasonable for ignoring the instructions while complaining of its opaqueness.

Sometimes i also enjoy discovering the "right approaches" in some games without reading the manuals or any readmes - Like Fallouts which i played for years without knowing how mechanics and numbers work besides what i could see directly through the gameplay -But i agree with fosse to extent that you cannot reasonably expect for mechanics of a RPG to be totally self evident and understandable just by looking at the interface.

Helpful tooltips will be added anyway, i gather - and other enhancements, since this is a working beta in a way still. Improvements are ongoing!

« Last Edit: January 08, 2010, 02:05:48 pm by caster »

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I don't know, I don't care, and it doesn't make any difference! - Albert Einstein

The trouble ain't that there is too many fools, but that the lightning ain't distributed right.

There is no need - I just chose the weapon which I overlooked due to the tiny font on my high res screen. I quickly beat everyone up to Nicander using the simplest spear (barbari only on the second try though because of my accidental clicking the right mouse button) and almost killed Nicander (we both were almost dead) but he got lucky first. Oh well.

My main concern is somewhat unintuitive interface.

Oh, and I haven't read the survival guide. I read only printed manuals and only when I need particular info. You guys overestimate the "knowledge of mechanics" stuff.

'twas no game breaking bug, I owe Nick an apology. Still, this "synergy" sp distribution is strange: if I choose to raise one skill without any prior selection of a primary weapon, why does the game not allow me to do so?

Btw, killed that Nicander fellow right away with fast attack only (with hasta). He managed to strike me only once (during interrupt).My char's name is Dodgy Bob.

'twas no game breaking bug, I owe Nick an apology. Still, this "synergy" sp distribution is strange: if I choose to raise one skill without any prior selection of a primary weapon, why does the game not allow me to do so?

Just what is so great and serious about videogames that videogame journalists should be fighters for truth, rather than purely promotional devices for a niche hobby (which is what they were meant to be).?

Oh, and I haven't read the survival guide. I read only printed manuals and only when I need particular info. You guys overestimate the "knowledge of mechanics" stuff.

I usually jump straight in without reading anything, as well, but when I can't figure out how to do something I'll look it up or ask instead of blaming the game...call it old school.

Maybe its old school, but there can never be too much in the way of good interface design and ease of information access. In the end a few more tooltips, a usable in-game helpfile, etc. will save a lot of forum spamming with the 100th version of "I put skillpoints in my weapons skill but it did not increase, whaaaa!!!", and will help creat good will. Especially with a game whose mechanica are not trivial to "get" at first, at least for people who haven't touched Fallout in the last ten years or so. At least for issues that get mentioned here more than once, the effort is worthwhile imho...

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------------------------------------------=====================---------------------------------------"Merely killing those being mean to me. It's not my fault it's everyone in the world of AoD". (Vahhabyte)

Could someone please expand on this one. I know that the formula is linked to the throwing skill (+TS/10) but I got the impression that it is more complicated?

I wonder how it is done. It sounds logical to link it to the throwing skill, but by doing so it kinda contradicts the whole stereotype of a bad-ass gladiator with a trident in one hand and a net with another... i.e. it would end up used by throwing builds together with throwing knifes etc.